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| Don Bachardy, Robert Graham, 1972. The Huntington |
Don Bachardy's art is grounded in the ability to capture a likeness with pencil and brush. This has set him apart from his peers while also rendering him indispensable. No one else has created such a comprehensive portrait gallery of the literary, artistic, and cinematic worlds. Bachardy has designated the Huntington as the primary guardian of his legacy, a fitting choice given the Huntington's emphasis on Anglophone literature and portraits. The institution is offering a sample of the gift with "Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits," an exhibition with over a hundred portraits plus photographs, letters, and memorabilia.
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| Don Bachardy, Bette Davis, 1973 |
Don and brother Ted were gay teens infatuated with Hollywood. For a while they lived a Day of the Locust existence, crashing Hollywood premieres to get their pictures taken with the stars. Don began drawing celebrities from reproduced photos in movie magazines. In that sense his first masters were the glamour photographers of old Hollywood.
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| Don Bachardy, Christopher Isherwood, 1983. Lent by the Christopher Isherwood Foundation |
On Valentine's day 1953 Bachardy met British expat novelist and screenwriter Christopher Isherwood. Bachardy was 18 and Isherwood was 48. They defied the odds to become one of the most enduring of Hollywood power couples. Isherwood's support allowed Bachardy to study at London's Slade School of Art. Isherwood also introduced Bachardy to a galaxy of writers and film people, many of them gay.
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| Don Bachardy, William Burroughs, 1976 |
Bachardy's graphite and ink portraits evoke van Dyck's etched
Iconographies, especially the unfinished
Self-Portrait. The head is casually posed while the body is a reductively flat outline.
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| Don Bachardy, James Baldwin, 1964 |
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| Don Bachardy, Truman Capote, 1961 |
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| Don Bachardy, Igor Stravinsky, 1960 |
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| Installation view, "Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits" |
Acrylic became Bachardy's favored medium from the late 1980s—the time of Isherwood's death—onward. The mere statistics of Bachardy's output are astonishing. Over a 70-plus-year career he has produced about 17,000 portraits, most of which the artist retains. In a typical day Bachardy sees two sitters and does two portraits of each. He works quickly and does not retouch a portrait after the sitting.
Bachardy still lives and works in the Santa Monica canyon home he shared with Isherwood. The home survived the Palisades fires, and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation and city of Los Angeles intend to convert it into a house museum. The portraits will be stored out of the fire zone at the Huntington.
"Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits" is in the Huntington's Boone Gallery through Aug. 4, 2025.
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| Don Bachardy, Self-Portrait, 2016 |
Comments
> the Huntington's emphasis
> on Anglophone literature
> and portraits.
The expansion of the Huntington over the past 20 years reminds me of how expectations (and so-called experiences) of today in the age of social media are more demanding. I recall when the property in San Marino was just the original house ("Blue Boy," "Pinkie"), the main display hall of the library and a few gardens, pre-children's, pre-Chinese, etc.
If that were still the case - and as with MOCA 1986 or even the Broad 2015 - I'd have a nagging sense of "is that all there is?" I still had a tiny bit of that reaction after visiting the Huntington even a few months ago.
There was a time before the 1970s in Paris when its Louvre was the main and almost only game in town. As for NYC, the Whitney in the Breuer building was quite modest and MOMA across town before 2004 was not very large either.
I wonder if the Geffen of LACMA ends up seeming not as spacious as it should be, particularly with all its areas made up of windows more than walls? I wonder what affect - if any- the Lucas will have on the local cultural scene and a need for "experiences?"
In its statement, the Elaine P. Wynn & Family Foundation directed contributions in Wynn’s memory to be made to LACMA to support the building of its satellite Las Vegas Museum of Art, which is tentatively slated to open in 2028.
Small mercies.